2019

Suggestions for ISO/TS 16949 Transition?
I thought the article "ISO/TS 16949 the Clear Choice for Automotive
Suppliers" (Christian Lupo, October 2002, p. 44) was very helpful.
My company is planning to make the jump from ISO 9001:1994 to ISO/TS 16949.
Can the author suggest additional things for us to focus on during our
transition?

FRITZ DRAMMManitowoc, WI

Author's response: ISO/TS 16949:2002
and ISO/TS 16949:1999 are very different standards. I will assume you
are upgrading to ISO/TS 16949:1999 since you made reference to the 1994
revision of ISO 9001. Here are some things you should remember when making
the transition:

1. Know your quality levels for all your
automotive customers. Ford, General Motors and DaimlerChrysler make it
easy because they put these metrics online.

2. Use the same discipline when designing
processes that you use when designing a product.

An Inaccuracy In ISO/TS 16949 Article?
The "Registration processes" section of "ISO/TS
16949 the Clear Choice for Automotive Suppliers" implies a review
of top level documents (quality manual and procedures) and a preassessment
are required for QS-9000 certification. The only requirement for QS-9000
certification is an on-site audit. It certainly makes good sense to have
the documents reviewed and a preassessment performed, but both are optional.

The section "Transitioning from QS-9000
to TS" indicates no reductions are allowed for companies currently
registered or certified to ISO 9001. This is not accurate. Companies registered
to ISO 9001:2000 can have their ISO/TS audit days reduced to the number
of days that would be required for a recertification audit providing their
scope of registration or certification has not changed. This is indicated
in Table 7 of Rules for Achieving IATF Recognition, and audit day reduction
is indicated in the Table on p. 21 of that same book.

Author's response: You are correct.
A preassessment is not required. An official survey has never been conducted
on the subject; however, not conducting a preassessment before a QS-9000
registration is the exception rather than the norm.

The article focuses on the differences between
the QS-9000 and ISO/TS 16949 registration processes. QS-9000 registration
can be completed in two steps, while TS 16949 cannot.

Suppliers upgrading from ISO 9001:1994 to
ISO/TS 16949:2002 cannot reduce the initial ISO/TS 16949 audit duration.
Kudos for pointing out that suppliers with ISO 9001:2000 registration
can reduce the initial ISO/TS 16949:2002 audit duration to the time required
for reassessment.

The difficulty in writing an article in such
a dynamic industry is that the information is constantly being updated.
The article was written based on the IATF rules for certification bodies
for ISO/TS 16949:1999 and did not address ISO 9001:2000. This gives me
the opportunity to update readers on other recent changes:

1. DaimlerChrysler, Ford and General Motors
announced that first tier suppliers must upgrade to ISO/TS 16949:2002
by the end of 2004.

2. TS 16949 audits that last five days or
more must have at least two auditors.

3. There will be a tooling and equipment
supplement to TS 16949.

4. TS 16949 transfers are now possible under
specific conditions.

CHRISTIAN B. LUPO

A Few More Points About Accreditation
Larry Aft's article, "Evaluating Higher Education Programs
in Quality" (October 2002, p. 30), is a really good example of a
desirable article: short, interesting and informative.

Aft does justice to the concept of accreditation,
but please allow me to elaborate on his information:

1. Accreditation is more than a simple evaluation
of a curriculum. When the evaluation team goes to a school (just as when
an accreditation body sends a team to a testing or calibration laboratory),
the documentation is certainly examined, but it also includes the evaluation
of technical competence.

That piece of the evaluation is what separates
accreditation from registration in the quality world. Accreditation is
more difficult (ask any accredited calibration laboratory), and any school
that's accredited, especially if the accreditation is specific, has done
its homework.

2. There is a standard being developed for
accreditation on an international basis. Accreditation to ISO 17024 (once
available) will ensure international acceptance for accredited institutions
through the Mutual Recognition Arrangement signatory process.

1992 Baldrige Model Is Better Than the
Others
The article "A Thing of the Past?" by David A. Collier,
Susan Meyer Goldstein and Darryl D. Wilson (October 2002, p. 97) discussed
what system thinkers intuitively knew. The 1992 Malcolm Baldrige National
Quality Award model is better than the other models. This model links
the categories directly, which is consistent with my operations engineering
perspective of having to connect the dots between system drivers and results.

I have always viewed an organizational entity
as an information processing machine, with managers managing the flow
of data and making decisions to resolve technical and social conflicts
in the processes. The prime role of managers is to resolve the problems
and improve performance to the point their job is not required; accordingly,
they become leaders.

The role of leaders is to focus on setting
the mission critical goals or system operating levers and foster the organizational
culture to spark innovation and continuous learning as a means to create
competitive advantage by building organizational agility.

This article will be a key reference in my
current work to use quality principles and practices as the foundation
to develop strategic leadership and managerial competencies to design,
plan and improve performance in complex, nonlinear organizational systems.

Deming Offers Much To Healthcare Workers
It was good to read Clare Crawford-Mason's story ("Deming
and Me," September 2002, p. 45) and learn again how much W. Edwards
Deming had to offer to us as we work together for better health and healthcare.

Her experience reminds us patients and caregivers
are members of the same system for the production of service and healthcare.
Her insights into the actual experience of an "engaged, activated,
empowered" patient reveal how important it is for us to build shared
information and decision making into healthcare--and that it isn't as
simple as some suggest.

Not noted in the story is her plan to continue
to carefully monitor the situation with additional samples of the population
of cells in question--as appropriate for her risk factors. Deming once
observed, "Knowledge has temporal spread." Indeed.

Incompetent, Lazy Nurses Aren't the Problem
Quality Progress' feature articles on healthcare were both encouraging
and disappointing. As a registered nurse, I can see the flaws in the system
on a near daily basis. However, the current healthcare system is so complex
that suggesting and implementing change for nursing staff is usually of
no consequence.

Patients are sicker, living longer and quicker
to threaten lawsuits. Yet the basic system of nursing care has not changed.
We are routinely asked to do more, better, faster, with less.

As a result, workplace conditions are at
the crux of the current nursing shortage but are not being recognized
as such. Table 4 of "Reduce Human Error" by James J. Rooney,
Lee N. Vanden Huevel and Donald K. Lorenzo (September 2002, p. 27) shows
most bedside hospital nurses face nine out of the 10 factors every day
and night. No wonder there are errors and unhappy consumers.

The response to the shortage seems to be
to pour more money into educating new nurses to fill vacancies rather
than to fix the working conditions--mainly nurse-patient ratios--and retain
more experienced nurses.

The opinion that "managers must recognize
most patient safety factors ... are within their control" (p. 31)
is what most bedside nurses have been voicing for decades. Some states
are legislating safe staffing standards, which include safe and reasonable
staff ratios. Those of us in other states are hoping and waiting. It was
at least refreshing to read that incompetent or lazy nurses are not the
problem. We are all out here waiting for a solution.